He ordered alleged "terrorists (interrogated) for as long as it takes aboard US naval vessels." Al-Libi is held on the USS San Antonio. It's an amphibious warship.

Throughout his tenure, Obama continued the worst of odious Bush administration practices. The Clinton administration began them. Guilt or innocence doesn't matter. Suspects are lawlessly abducted.

They're denied all rights. They're held secretly at US black sites. Confessions are extracted through torture. Detainees say anything to stop pain.

Guantanamo is the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of US torture prisons operate globally. Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other complicit US allies host them.

They permit indefinite detention, interrogations, torture and other forms of abuse.

They assist in capturing and transporting detainees. They allow use of their domestic airspace. They provide intelligence information.

America is by far the world's leading human rights abuser. No nation in history matches its ruthlessness. It's out-of-control. It's unaccountable. It's waging war on humanity. It's doing it globally.

Reprieve is UK-based. It promotes rule of law accountability. It works to "secure each person's right to a fair trial." It tries to "save lives."

In June 2008, it said America "may have used as many as 17 ships as floating prisons."

"About 26,000 people are being (lawlessly) held by the US in secret prisons - a figure that includes land-based detention centers."

"(I)nformation suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001."

"Prison ships have been used by the US to hold terror suspects illegally since the days of President Clinton."

"US government sources have confirmed that both the USS Bataan and the USS Peleliu have been used to hold prisoners."

"Reprieve investigations suggest that a further 15 ships have been used to hold prisoners beyond the rule of law since 2001."

They're "interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations."

Reprieve legal director Clive Stafford later said:

"(W)e've identified thirty-two prison ships, sort of prison hulks you used to read about in Victorian England, which have been converted to hold prisoners, and we've got pictures of them in Lisbon Harbor, for example."

"And these are holding prisoners around the world, as well. And there's a bunch of proxy prisons - (in) Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and other countries - where this stuff is going on."

"And this is a huge concern, because the world focus is on Guantanamo Bay, which really is a diversionary tactic in the whole war of terror or war on terror, whatever you'd like to call it."

"And actually, most of these people who have been severed from their legal rights are in these other secret prisons around the world."

According to a former detainee:

"One of my fellow prisoners in Guantanamo was at sea on an American ship before coming to Guantanamo."

"He was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other prisoners on the ship."

"They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV."

"The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantanamo."

America's war on terror authorizes anything goes. On September 18, 2001, Congress passed a joint House-Senate Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for "the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States."

On October 26, Patriot Act lawlessness followed. On November 13, Military Order Number 1 authorized the president to capture, kidnap or otherwise arrest non-citizens anywhere in the world for any reason.

US citizens are now vulnerable. Anyone can be arrested or abducted. They can be held indefinitely without charge, evidence, due process, trial, or other judicial fairness protections.

Torture is official US policy. Bush established it. On September 17, 2001, he signed a secret finding.

It authorized the CIA to "Capture, Kill, or Interrogate Al-Queda Leaders."

It mandated establishing secret global facilities to detain and interrogate them. Doing so without guidelines on proper treatment was OK'd.